The first flight of SpaceX’s Dragon capsule

The U.S. Space Force says it will launch two GPS navigation satellites on reused Falcon 9 boosters next year through a restructured contract with SpaceX that saved taxpayers $52 million, the first time the military has agreed to fly operational national security payloads on previously-flown rockets.

The Falcon 9 first stage booster, tail number B1080, landed near Exuma, an island within The Bahamas. Liftoff from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station happened at 6:21 p.m. EST (2321 UTC).

The Starlink 17-11 mission included the 475th launch of a flight-proven booster. SpaceX achieved liftoff from pad 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base at 9:26 p.m. PDT (12:26 a.m. EDT / 0426 UTC).